UCT News April 2015

From the Vice-Chancellor's desk Issue 04

Dear friends, colleagues, students and staff The statue of Cecil John Rhodes has been at the centre of a lot of attention recently. And while the question of whether, when and how it should be removed is being resolved, I’d like to take a moment to draw your attention to the bigger issues it stands for, and where we go from here.

UCT is an old institution that has seen much change over the years. Sometimes it’s been at the forefront of that change; at other times it has resisted it. Twenty-one years into our country’s democracy, 186 years from our founding, we’re again at another turning point.

The #RhodesMustFall campaign was never simply about a statue. It was about symbols, names and heritage more generally; and beyond that about making all students and staff feel like they belong at UCT, about creating an inclusive culture.

It is a process that can benefit from the inputs of our staff, students, alumni and broader UCT community. Let me encourage alumni: if you ever felt unwelcome at UCT – whether because of your race, class, gender, religion, sexual orientation, disability, language or culture – we invite your participation, your ideas, your passion and ability to imagine new possibilities for the university. What was it that made you feel you did not fully belong? Any ideas what UCT could do to change that?

On the other hand, you may have taken to UCT like a fish to water – coming to UCT felt natural. The symbols and names, history and architecture were familiar to you from childhood. Perhaps you find it incomprehensible that these names and symbols could be controversial, offensive, signalling exclusion. If this is how you feel we want you to participate too; by reading all that is being said, by opening yourself to new views, by sharing your particular stance and by helping us with ideas on how to make everyone feel included and recognised on campus. Whether your view is one of the above or somewhere in-between, please do engage.

This is an exciting time for UCT; a time of significant rupture with the past and commitment to an inclusive future. I believe that we are in a position to lead the discussions in the country – in higher education and even beyond that. It’s a long road ahead, filled with difficult conversations and uncomfortable self- reflection. It’s also a path that will define us in the future.

Finally, I want to assure everyone that whilst it may seem from media images and the extensive coverage of the Rhodes Statue protests that this has been disruptive, even aggressive, in fact the protests have generally been disciplined, peaceful and considered. The protesters have engaged in serious teach-ins (from a range of people including our academics) in Mafeje room in the Bremner Building, and I believe for many this is indeed an educational experience and they ultimately have the university’s interest at heart. Classes have not been missed nor disrupted. One should not have to make these points, but unfortunately such disruption is the routine in the protests that occur on many other university campuses in South Africa. Let me also assure all that we will not tolerate illegal acts. Where there have been isolated incidents of behaviour that amounts to intimidation we are investigating disciplinary action.

I look upon this time as an opportunity for the UCT community to refocus our transformation agenda, to accelerate our efforts on the way towards an inclusive and diverse community where all feel at home and enthusiastically make their contribution.

Warm wishes

Max Price Vice-Chancellor

UCT's first MOOC starts 16 March 2015

With more than 6 000 enrolled students from over 100 countries, UCT's first free online course or MOOC (massive open online course) starts today, with enrolment open until the very last day of the course.

The six-week course, titled Medicine & the Arts: Humanising Healthcare, explores the intersection of medicine, medical anthropology and the creative arts.

In the first week, participants will be introduced to the course conveners, Assoc Prof Susan Levine and Prof Steve Reid, who will outline the premise for the course. The theme for the week is The heart of the matter – a matter of the heart, with Reid interviewing a heart surgeon, a poet, and a transplant recipient, in the theatre where Dr Chris Barnard performed the first successful human heart transplant in 1967.

Participants will engage with the material through video lectures, comment spaces and short written assignments, and connect with other students through the course discussions, Twitter, Facebook and other social media.

Three body maps on the outer wall of UCT's Medical School library trace the outlines of a story of health and HIV – how the virus entered the body, and how a life journey has changed course since that time. These illustrations were made by three women in the Bambanani Group, and translated into mosaic by Lovell Friedman.

Assoc Prof Laura Czerniewicz, director of UCT's Centre for Innovation in Learning and Teaching (CILT), believes that the university's involvement with MOOCs will be a means of addressing the imbalance in how knowledge is produced and disseminated around the world.

"The vast majority of MOOCs being produced in the world are offered by universities in the global north; while their students come from all over the globe. This has the effect of rendering local knowledge and curricula invisible. It is really important for universities in Africa and other countries in the global south to produce MOOCs based on local knowledge, experiences and curricula," she explains.

Registration for the next MOOC, What is a mind?, is now open. The course starts on 11 May, and hopes to bring participants to a fuller understanding of what a mind is through four aspects – subjectivity, intentionality, consciousness and agency.

To register for these courses, go to: www.futurelearn.com/courses/medicine-and-the-arts www.futurelearn.com/courses/what-is-a-mind

For more information on MOOCs: Making a MOOC MOOCs around the world

Story by Abigail Calata. Photo by Michael Hammond

Shacks on the cool track 13 February 2015

Shacks have sprung up on the upper campus of UCT. They are not part of a burgeoning informal settlement, but are there to test an innovation that helps shacks stay cool in summer.

Mark Algra shows off the shack blanket he designed. The shack on the left is a standard shack and the one on the right is an experimental shack at the University of . Photo by Adrian de Kock

Thanks to little more than recycled plastic bottles and wet charcoal, the temperature in one shack is 10 degrees celsius lower than in the one next door, and 3 degrees celsius lower than outside. Cape Town business owner Mark Algra partnered with UCT to develop methods of reducing temperatures in shacks during summer and retaining heat during winter, for less than R1 000.

By cladding the outside of the corrugated steel experimental shack with white-painted PET cloth made from old cooldrink bottles, the temperature inside was drastically reduced.

Algra says the synthetic fibre also has UV-resistant properties, and could be used as a tarpaulin or shade cover.

"The white paint reflects UV rays, and the PET cloth acts as another barrier to heat," he says.

The Cool Shack Project came about after Algra was inspired by the World Design Capital, hosted in Cape Town last year, to design something to improve people's lives.

He approached Dr Kevin Winter from UCT's Environmental and Geographical Science Department to help develop the idea. "People lock their shacks and go to work; and in summer, the shacks become baking ovens," says Winter.

The experimental shack also has water-soaked charcoal in pockets on the inner walls. As the water evaporates, the air cools, helped by a ventilation system that draws out warm air through a dome covering a hole cut in the roof.

The reports that about 140 000 households in its area are shacks, so such an innovation would have a large impact.

Winter says a pilot project is being planned with the Shack Dwellers International NGO.

"We need to have real-life application before we can take it to the public," he says.

Story by Farren Collins, and first published on Times Live.

Skydiving centenarian is 'inspired to live' 27 March 2015

'Inspired to live' is the name of a series of public talks 100-year-old Georgina Harwood is planning to deliver; and with a résumé like hers, it's little wonder.

UCT alumna Georgina Harwood performed her third skydive on her 100th birthday.

Harwood, née Mitchell, graduated with a BA from UCT in 1934, but it's her more recent escapades that have grabbed headlines. If you imagined her 100th birthday party would involve much sitting, and perhaps a spot of tea ... perish the thought.

Instead, Harwood jumped out of a plane (yes, it was flying – thousands of feet above terra firma). It wasn't her first time, either.

The centenarian is gaining quite a reputation as a skydiver, having first taken the plunge at a spritely 92, and then again at 97. Hardwood's latest jump was in aid of the National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI), and she's opened an activist page on the website www.givengain.com, where people can donate money to buy lifejackets for NSRI volunteers.

Skydiving was just the beginning of the birthday bash. Harwood went shark-cage diving in Gansbaai on 16 March, and took the cable car up and down on 10 March (her actual birthday) – this before spending the evening with 140 guests at a centenary dinner, says her daughter Sue Homer.

All of which begs the question: where does she get the energy?

Homer laughs. "I'm amazed. One thing my mom has always said is that she's blessed with energy. But a lot of that energy is her positive thoughts. Even today – she found Sudoku in a magazine, and she didn't know how to do it; so she asked her grandchildren to help her learn to do Sudoku."

Her mom is "always learning", says Homer, adding that one of her mom's life mottos was that when one found oneself in a community, one should integrate and be of service to that community.

Harwood demonstrated this by co-founding the UCT Mountain Club (which exists today as the UCT Mountain and Ski Club), to curb the high number of deaths and injuries on Table Mountain at the time. This feat is perhaps even more impressive considering she joined UCT on the cusp of her 16th birthday in 1931, and graduated within four years.

Harwood was one of UCT's roughly 600 students at the time, and completed nine subjects for her BA degree. She particularly enjoyed zoology, says Homer, and earned a first-class pass in second-year zoology.

This was a UCT sans Jameson Hall, and Harwood lived in the newly built Fuller House residence. Fuller invited her back to plant a tree as the oldest living resident a few years ago, and by then the landscape had changed almost beyond recognition.

A fleet of 'new' buildings and a much bigger student population has by now changed the face of upper campus; but Harwood's indomitable spirit and lust for life remain constant. Watch the video of Harwood's third skydive on her 100th birthday: Watch News24's interview with Georgina Harwood:

Story by Yusuf Omar. Photo by Jason Baker of the Cape Town Skydiving Club.

R10 coffee and breakfast cereal: new vending ventures by UCT students 1 April 2015

Introduction of UniCafé

Mechanical Engineering students, Jason Hardy and James Shin, developed a new type of vending machine on campus, UniCafé, offering a variety of coffee and hot–chocolate to students. The students created the machines themselves, sourcing parts from South Korea. Currently their machines are found in Menzies, Computer Science, NSLT and Kramer Law buildings and are available 24/7.

Hardy states that their main aim in starting this business was to provide "a big cup of coffee, with freshly ground coffee beans" for an affordable price. Overall students have reacted positively to the introduction of the new machines, commenting that they like the variety and quality of the coffee. UCT radio tweeted a picture of the machine, to which @timadafish replied that "life is worth living" due to the new coffee machine.

According to Hardy and Shin, their business requires a great deal of time and effort. "If we're not sleeping we're working," commented Shin. Shin is currently taking a gap year because of the demands of this business while Hardy is still studying. However, both students stated that it is worth the hard work and is rewarding to give birth to a new initiative.

The coffee machines have internet connection which is linked to Shin and Hardy's devices so that they can monitor supplies, cash and also receive quick alerts on any problems with the machine.

Hardy and Shin mentioned that they have many plans for their business and intend to make certain upgrades to the vending machines. These plans include expanding their machines to other areas of UCT – they are looking at installing machines on Medical Campus.

Another aim is to introduce a convenient student card payment system. This would work similar to printing credits, and students would be able to load money onto the card for future usage. There are also plans to launch an EFT option.

Additionally, Shin and Hardy intend to introduce advertising screens in order to generate more money, and consequently subsidise coffee costs.

They are looking at the possibility of setting up their own roastery, since if they make their own beans they can both maintain their standard and keep prices low. In the future, the two entrepreneurs aim to maximize on the capacity of the machine so it can produce a lot more coffee for a lot more people.

Cereal Machine Initiative

Another student who introduced their own vending machine idea at UCT, after consultation with the UniCafé designers, is Daniel Czech. Czech is currently studying a Master's Degree in Electrical Engineering. His initiative started with the idea of introducing an interesting and different type of vending machine – one with cereal for breakfast–on–the–go. This machine is found on level three of Menzies Building.

The vending machine offers three different types of cereal to cater for a large group of students. These cereals include one sugary (Cocoa Pops), one healthy (muesli) and one cheaper option (cornflakes). He plans on further expanding the cereal options based on what most people prefer.

Czech said that the designing process was more challenging than he had anticipated, but with a bit of creativity, experimentation and some consultation he was able to create his own machine. After the initial stages, his initiative became a process of modifying and specialising the machine to specifically dispense cereal and milk sachets. Czech made the changes to the machine based on what seemed to work for the students, saying that he "would just sit and watch people buying to see what goes wrong." It is through this process that Czech was able to make the necessary adjustments.

One improvement he introduced was installing a sensor to prevent the machine from dispensing cereal regardless of whether the user remembered to place their cup or not. He also has plans to make the machines smaller and more attractive in the future.

Students who have discovered the machine commented that it was "interesting, different and convenient" and praised the fact that they can have easy access to breakfast on–the–go.

Story by Tinotenda Masando. Image by Amina Ebrahim. This story first appeared in the newspaper on 24 March 2015.

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